LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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ADDRESS 



MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL, 



REMOVAL 



MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT, 



OLD STATE UOUST,. 



BY HARRISON GRAY OTIS, 

MAYOR OF THE CITY OF BOSTOjV. 



BOSTON: 

JOHN H. EASTBURN....CITY PRINTER. 



MDCCCXXX. 






(6_<f-e-.<-^>-^^ (_X^Mjl^>^j^ji.<.-.» ^^ 



CITY OF BOSTON. 
In CoMMOJf Council, Skptember 17, 1830. 
Ordered, That the Committee of ArrangeineiUs he, and they here- 
by are, du-ected to i.resent to the Mayor the thanks of the City 
Council, for the impressive an.l eloquent Address delivered hy hi.n 
to the City Council in Convention, on the morning of this memora- 
ble Aniversary, and to request a copy of the same for the press. 

Sent up for Concurrence, 

B. T. PICKMAN, Prcsidtnt. 

In the Board of Aldervien, September 20, 1830. 

Read and Concurred. ^ ^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ 

A TRUE COPY — Attest, 

S. F. M'CLEARY, City Chrk. 



Boston, September 20, 1830. 



the 



Committee of Arrangements for the 



Hcu'^.HjC!'.:Qti». 

•'* *• '*TIie*'UnTT(?rsigiie^,* 
£kMtUam,ii&lQ£li.'iir9iion oflh.e.Settlement of Boston, have the honor 
1^oln4l4^ii)|i*^i/atl^slecrUi».y of a vote of the City Council, and re- 
spectfully ask your compliance with the request contained therein. 

Benjamin Russell, 
AViNSLOW Lewis, 
Benjamin T. Pickman, 
Thomas Minns, 
Joseph Eveleth, 
John W. James, 
John P. Bigelow, 
AVashington P. Gragg. 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the Common Council: 

I have the honor to announce to you that the 
Mayor and Aldermen have concurred with your re- 
quest to change the name of this building, and to 
order that it be henceforth called and known by the 
name of the City Hall. 

Gentlemen of the City Council^ 

The intimations which I have received from many 
individuals of your body, have left me no room to 
doubt of your general expectation, that this first oc- 
casion of our meeting in this Chamber should not be 
permitted to pass away, without something more than 
a brief record of the event upon your journals. — 
The spot on which we are convened is Patriot 
Ground. It was consecrated, by our pious ancestors, 
to the duties of providing for the welfare of their 
infmt settlement; and, for a long series of years, was 
occupied, in succession, by the great and good men 
whom Providence raised up to establish the institu- 
tions and liberties of their country. 

There are none, who have paid even a superficial 
attention to the process of their perceptions, who are 



4 



not conscious that a prolific source of intellectual 
pleasures and pains is found in our faculty of associa- 
ting the remembrance of characters and events, which 
have most interested our aifections and passions, with 
the spot whereon the first have lived and the latter have 
occurred. It is to the magic of this local influence 
that we are indebted, for the charm which recals the 
sports and pastimes of our childhood, the joyous days 
of youth, when buoyant spirits invested all surround- 
ing objects with the color of the rose. It is this, which 
brings before us, as we look back through the vista 
of riper years, past enjoyments and afflictions, aspir- 
ing hopes and bitter disappointments, the tempta- 
tions we have encountered, the snares which have 
entangled us, the dangers we have escaped, the 
fidelity or treachery of friends. It is this, which en- 
ables us to surround oiu'selves with the images of 
those who were associates in the scenes we contem- 
plate, and to hold sweet converse with the spirits of 
the depart6d, whom we have loved or honoured, in 
the places which shall know them no more. 

But the potency of these local associations is not 
limited to the sphere of our personal experience. — 
We are qualified by it, to derive gratification from 
what we have heard and read of other times, to 
bring forth forgotten treasures from the recesses of 
memory, and recreate fancy in the fields of im- 
agination. The regions, which have been famed in 
sacred or fabulous history ; the mountains, plains, 
isles, rivers, celebrated in the classic page ; the seas, 
traversed by the discoverers of new worlds ; the 
fields, in w hich empires have been lost and u on, are 



scenes of enchantment for the visiter, who indulges 
the trains of perception which either rush unbidden 
on his mind, or are courted by its vohmtary efforts. 
This faculty it is, which, united with a disposition 
to use it to advantage, alone gives dignity to the 
passion for visiting foreign countries, and distinguish- 
es the philosopher, who moralizes on the turf that 
covers the mouldering dust of ambition, valour, or pa- 
triotism, from the fashionable vagabond, who flutters 
among the flowers which bloom over their graves. 

Among all the objects of mental association, an- 
cient buildings and ruins affect us with the deepest 
and most vivid emotions. They were the works of 
beings like ourselves. While a mist, impervious to 
mortal view, hangs over the future, all our fond 
imaginings of the things which " eye hath not seen 
nor ear heard," in the eternity to come, are inevita- 
bly associated with the men, the events and things, 
which have gone to join the eternity that is past. — 
When imagination has in vain essayed to rise beyond 
the stars which "proclaim the story of their birth," in- 
quisitive to know the occupations and condition of 
the sages and heroes whom we hope to join in a 
higher empyrean, she drops her weary wing, and is 
compelled to alight among the fragments of " gor- 
geous palaces and cloud-capp'd towers," which cover 
their human ruins, and by aid of these localities, to 
ruminate upon their virtues and their faults, on their 
deeds in the cabinet and in the field, and upon the 
revolutions of the successive ages in which they 
lived. To this propensity may be traced the subli- 
mated feelings of the man, who, familiar with the 
stories of Sesostris, the Pharaohs, and the Ptolemies, 



surveys the pyramids, not merely as stupendous fa- 
brics of mechanical skill, but as monuments of the 
pride and ambitious folly of kings, and of the debase- 
ment and oppression of the wretched myriads, by 
whose labors they were raised to the skies. To this 
must be referred the awe and contrition which solemn- 
ize and melt the heart of the Christian, who looks 
into the Holy Sepulchre, and believes he sees the 
place where the Lord was laid. From this originate 
the musin2;s of the scholar, who, amid the ruins of 
the Parthenon and the Acropolis, transports his im- 
agination to the age of Pericles and Phidias ; — the 
reflections of all, not dead to sentiment, who descend 
to the subterranean habitation of Pompeii — handle 
the utensils that once ministered to the wants, and 
the ornaments subservient to the luxury, of a polished 
city — behold the rut of wheels, upon the pavement 
hidden for a^es from human siii;ht — and realize the 
awful hour, when the hum of industry and the song 
of joy, the wailing of the infant and the garrulity of 
age, were suddenly and forever silenced by the fiery 
deluge which buried the city, until accident and in- 
dustry, after the lapse of nearly eighteen centuries, 
revealed its ruins to the curiosity and cupidity of the 
passing age. 

These remarks, in which you may think there is 
more of truth than of nov elty, have been suggested 
by the experiment which a few days since I attempt- 
ed, to condense in the compass of a short address, a 
few ideas appropriate to this cccasion. Beginning 
to think upon matters connected with the old Town 
House, I found my mind confused, and overwhelmed 
with the nndtitudinous associations of our early his- 



tory, which it naturally induced. To indulge them to 
a great extent, would trench upon the province and 
the hour assigned to another, whose eloquence will 
furnish the principal gratification of the day. It is 
therefore indispensable, to confine myself to a few 
observations, and consequently to do but imperfect 
justice to my feelings and the subject. 

The history of the Town House, considered mere- 
ly as a compages of brick and wood, is short and sim- 
ple. It was erected between the years 1657 and 
1659, and was principally of wood, as far as can be 
ascertained. The contractor received six hundred 
and eighty pounds, on a final settlement in full of all 
contracts. This was probably the whole amount of 
the cost, being double that of the estimate — a ratio 
pretty regularly kept up in our times. The popula- 
tion of the town, sixty years afterwards, was about 
ten thousand ; and it is allowing an increase beyond 
the criterion of its actual numbers at subsequent pe- 
riods, to presume that at the time of the first erec- 
tion of the Town House, it numbered three thousand 
souls. In 1711 the building was burnt to the ground, 
and soon afterwards built with brick. In 1747 the 
interior was again consumed by fire, and soon re- 
paired, in the form which it retained until the present 
improvement, with the exception of some alterations 
in the apartments, made upon the removal of the 
Legislature to the new State House. The eastern 
chamber was originally occupied by the Council ; 
afterwards by the Senate. The Representatives 
constantly held their sittings in the western cham- 
ber. The floor of these was supported by pillars. 



8 



and terminated at each end by doors, and at one end 
by a flight of steps leading into State street. In the 
day time the doors were kept open, and the floor 
served as a walk for the inhabitants, always much 
frequented, and during the sessions of the courts, 
thronged. On the north side, were offices for the 
clerks of the supreme and inferior courts. In these, 
the judges robed themselves, and walked in proces- 
sion, followed by the bar, at the opening of the 
courts. Committee rooms were provided in the 
upper story. Since the removal of the Legislature, 
it has been internally divided into apartments, and 
leased for various uses in a mode familiar to you 
all, and it has now undergone great repairs. This 
floor being adapted to the accommodation of the City 
Government, and its principal officers, while the first 
floor is allotted to the post office, news room, and 
private warehouses. 

In this brief account of the natural body of the 
building, which it is believed comprehends whatever 
is material, there is nothing, certainly, dazzling or ex- 
traordinary. It exhibits no pomp of architectural 
grandeur, or refined taste ; and has no pretensions to 
vie with the magnificent structures of other countries, 
or even of our own. Yet is it a goodly and venera- 
ble pile — and with its recent improvements, is an or- 
nament of the place, of whose liberty it was once the 
citadel. And it has an interest for Bostonians who 
enter it this day, like that which is felt by grown chil- 
dren for an ancient matron by whom they were reared, 
and whom, visiting after years of absence, they find 
in her neat, chaste, old fashioned attire, spruced up 



to receive them, with her comforts about her, and the 
same kind, hospitable and excellent creature whom 
they left in less flourishing circumstances. But to 
this edifice there is not only a natural but "a spiritual 
body," which is the immortal soul of Independence. 
Nor is there on the face of the earth, another building 
however venerable for its antiquity, or stately in its 
magnificence — however decorated by columns and por- 
ticos, and cartoons, and statues and altars, and out- 
shining " the wealth of Ormus or of Ind," entitled 
in history to more honorable mention, or whose 
spires and turrets are surrounded with a more glorious 
halo, than this unpretending building. 

This assertion might be justified, by a review of the 
parts performed by those who have made laws, for a 
century after the first settlement of Boston — of their 
early contention for their chartered rights — of their 
perils and difficulties with the natives— of their costly 
and heroic exertions in favor of the mother country in 
the common cause. — But I pass over them all, replete as 
they are with interest — with wonder and with moral. 
Events posterior to those growing out of them indeed, 
and taking from them their complexion, are consider- 
ed by reflecting men, as having produced more radical 
changes in the character, relations, prospects, and (so 
far as it becomes us to prophecy) in the destinies of 
the human family, than all other events and revolu- 
tions that have transpired since the Christian Era. 
I do not say that the principles which have led to 
these events originated here. But I venture to as- 
sert that here, within these walls, they were first 
practically applied to a well-regulated machinery of 
2 



10 



human passions, conscious riglits, and steady movfr 
ments, which forcing these United States to the sum- 
mit of prosperity, has been adopted as a model by 
which other nations have been, and will yet be pro- 
pelled on the rail road which leads to universal Free- 
dom. The power of these engines is self-moving, and 
the motion is perpetual. Sages and philosophers had 
discovered that the world was made for the people 
who inhabit it ; and that Kings were less entitled in 
their own right to its government, than Lions, whose 
claims to be lords of the forest are sujiported by phy- 
sical prowess. But the books and treatises which 
maintained these doctrines were read by the admirers 
of the Lockes and Sidneys and Miltons and Harring- 
tons, and replaced on their shelves as brilliant The- 
ories. Or if they impelled to occasional action, it 
ended in bringing new tyrants to the throne and sin- 
cere patriots to the scaffold. But your progenitors 
who occupied these seats first taught a whole people 
systematically to combine the united force of their 
moral and physical energies — to learn the rights of 
insurrection not as written in the language of the 
passions, but in codes and digests of its justifiable ca- 
ses — to enforce them under the restraints of discipline 
— to define and limit its objects — to be content with 
success and to make sure of its advantages. — All this 
they did, and when the propitious hour had arrived they 
called on their countrymen as the Angel called upon 
the Apostles, " Come rise up quickly, and the chains 
fell from their hands." — The inspiring voice echoed 
through the welkin in Europe and America and 
awakened nations. He who would learn the effects 



I 



11 

of it, must read the history of the world for the last 
half century. He who would anticipate the conse- 
quences must ponder well the probabilities with 
which time is pregnant, for the next. The memory 
of these men is entitled to a full share of all the 
honor arising from the advantage derived to mankind 
from this change of condition, but yet is not chargea- 
ble with the crimes and misfortunes, more than is 
the memory of Fulton with the occasional bursting 
of a boiler. 

Shall I then glance rapidly at some of the scenes 
and the actors who figured in them, within these 
walls ? Shall I carry you back to the controversies 
between Governor Barnard and the House of Repre- 
sentatives, commencing nearly seventy years ago, 
respecting the claims of the mother country to tax 
the Colonies without their consent ? To the stand 
made against writs of assistance in the chamber now 
intended for your Mayor and Aldermen, where and 
when according to John Adams, " Independence was 
born?" and wdiose star was then seen in the East, by 
wise men. To the memorable vindication of the 
House of Representatives by one of its members ? 
To the " Rights of the Colonies," adopted by the 
legislature as a Text book, and transmitted by their 
order to the British Ministry ? To the series of pa- 
triotic resolutions protests and State papers teeming 
with indignant eloquence and irresistible argument in 
opposition to the Stamp and other tax acts ? — to the 
landing and quartering of troops in the town ? To 
the rescinding of resolutions in obedience to royal 
mandates ? To the removal of the seat of Govern- 



12 



ment and the untiring struggle in which the Legis- 
lature was engaged for fourteen or fifteen years, sup- 
ported by the Adamses, the Thachers, the Hawleys, 
the Hancocks, the Bowdoins, the Quincys and their 
illustrious colleagues ? In fact the most important 
measures, which led to the emancipation of the 
Colonies according to Hutchinson, a competent judge, 
orginated in this house, — in this apartment — with 
those men, who putting life and fortune on the issue, 
adopted for their motto 

*' Let such, such only tread this sacred floor 
Who dare to love their country, and be poor." 

Events of a different complexion are also asso- 
ciated with the Boston Town House. At one time 
it was desecrated by the king's troops quartered in 
the Representatives chamber and on the lower floor. 
At another time cannon were stationed and pointed 
toward its doors. Belo^v the balcony in King's 
street, on the doleful night of the fifth of March, the 
blood of the first victims to the military executioners 
was shed. On the appearance of the Governor, in 
the street, he was surrounded by an immense throng, 
who, to prevent mischief to his person, though he 
had lost their confidence, forced him into this build- 
ing, with the cry " To the Town House ! to the 
Town House !" He then went forth into the bal- 
cony and promising to use his endeavours to bring 
the offenders to justice and advising the people to 
retire, they dispersed vociferating. Home ! home ! 
The Governor and Council remained all night delib- 
erating in dismal conclave while the friends of their 
country bedewed their pillows with tears — "such tears 



13 



as Patriots shed for dying laws." But I would not 
wish, under any circumstances to dwell upon inci- 
dents like these — thankful as I am that time which 
has secured our freedom, has extinguished our re- 
sentments. I therefore turn from these painful remi- 
niscences and refer you to the day when Independ- 
ence mature in age and loveliness, advanced with an- 
gelic grace from the chamber in which she was born 
into the same balcony ; and holding in her hand the 
immortal scroll on which her name and character 
and claims to her inheritance were inscribed — re- 
ceived from the street filled with an impenetrable 
phalanx, and windows glittering with a blaze of 
beauty, the heartfelt homage and electrifying peals 
of the men, women and children of the whole city. 
The splendour of that glorious vision of my child- 
hood seems to be now present to my view, and the 
harmony of that universal concert to vibrate in my 
ear. 

Such, gentlemen, is the cursory and meagre chroni- 
cle of the men and the occurrences which have given 
celebrity to this building. And if it be true, that we 
are now before the altar, whence the coals were taken 
which have kindled the flame of liberty in two hemis- 
pheres, you will realize with me the sentiment already 
expressed, that the most interesting associations of 
the eventful history of the age might rise in natural 
trains and be indulged and presented on this occa- 
sion without violence to propriety. 

We, gentlemen, have now become for a short pe- 
riod, occupants of this temple of Liberty. Hence- 
forth, for many years, the City Government will 



14 



probaljly be here administered. The duties of its 
members are less arduous, painful and dignified than 
those of the eminent persons who one graced these 
seats and procured for us the privilege of admission 
to them. Yet let not these duties be undervalued. 
They are of sufficient weight and importance to ex- 
cite a conscientious desire in good minds, to cul- 
tivate a public spirit, and imitate with reverence 
great examples. There is ample scope for disposi- 
tions to serve our fellow citizens in the department 
of the City Government. It is charged with con- 
cerns affecting the daily comfort and prosperity of 
sixty thousand persons, — a number exceeding that of 
several of these United States at the time of their 
admission into the Union. The results of their de- 
liberations have an immediate bearing upon the mor- 
als, health, education and purse of this community 
and are generally of more interest to their feelings, 
and welfare than the ordinary acts of State Legislation. 
It is a community which any man may regard as a sub- 
ject of just pride to represent — rivalled by none in order- 
ly and moral habits, general intelligence, commercial 
and mechanic skill, a spirit of national enterprise, 
and above all a vigilance for the interest of posterity 
manifested in the provision made for public educa- 
tion. No state of society can be found more happy 
and attractive than yours. Many of those who are 
in its first ranks rose from humble beginnings and 
hold out encouragement to others to follow their 
steps. There is so far as I can judge, more real 
equality and a more general acq.uaintance and inter- 
course among the different vocations than is else- 



15 



where to be found in a populous city. Those of the 
middling class as respects wealth, the mechanics and 
the working men are not only eligible but constantly 
elected to all offices in state and city, in such pro- 
portion as they (constituting the great majority) see 
fit to assign. We enjoy the blessings of a healthy 
climate, delightful position and ample resources for 
prosperity in commerce, manufactures and the me- 
chanic arts, all of which I am persuaded are at this 
moment gradually reviving after some vicissitude 
from time and chance which happen to all things. — 
May w^e and those who will succeed us, appreciate 
the responsibleness attached to our places, by the 
merit of our predecessors, and though we cannot 
serve our country to the same advantage, may we 
love it with equal fidelity. And may the Guardian 
Genius of our beloved city forever delight to dwell 
in these renovated walls ! 



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